Present air conditioner condensers typically comprise one heat exchanger. Vapor refrigerant is driven by a compressor through the tubes of the heat exchanger while air is passed across the tubes to facilitate removal of the heat from the vapor refrigerant. Usually there are four to six rows of tubes. There is approximately a 20 percent loss in efficiency of heat transfer with each successive row of tubes. As the vapor refrigerant starts to liquefy in the exchanger, the temperature differential between the refrigerant and the air decreases which decreases the rate of heat transfer. Accordingly, heat exchangers take up considerable space to accommodate the needed lengths of the rows of tubes to insure liquefaction of the refrigerant. The large size of the heat exchanger presents problems in placing the condenser in limited spaces available in various vehicles. Also, as the space inside the vehicle that needs to be cooled increases, such as in buses or other larger vehicles, the size of condensers must increase which in turn compounds the problem of fitting the condenser in the vehicle.
Thus a need exists for a more compact condenser design that also increases the efficiency of heat transfer out of the refrigerant with each successive row of tubes.